Resolutions Adopted on Various Issues

(about the president's attempt to get Congress to give him permission to attack ISIS)

MECC opposes any U.S. declaration of war in the Middle East. U.S. Interventions in the last two decades have caused the ruin of Iraq, Libya, and Syria. U.S. governments have a long record of collaboration with rightist Islamic forces from mujahedeen of Afghanistan to princes of Saudi Arabia. U.S. forces are the last that should be asked to intervene in Iraq or Syria. What it can do to help the situation is cancel it $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia and any states that have supported rightist Islamic forces in Iraq and Syria (Feb. 2015)

(after the crushing to death of two Palestinian workers at checkpoints in 2014)

We for a closing of all checkpoints in Palestine/Israel and we will explain in our literature the effects checkpoints have on working people.

(Kurdish struggles)

We support the Kurdish struggle for self-determination and participatory democracy. We stand with the Kurdish people's fight against ISIS. We denounce the US and Turkey's virtual abandonment of Kobani- a site of the Kurds'

(In response to the big gains by ISIS in Iraq in the summer of 2014)

MECC opposes the renewed bombing in Iraq and feel any intervention should be humanitarian and directed by the UN.

(on the firing of Steven Salaita)

Our Executive Director will draft a letter to U.of Ill. Chancellor and Trustees in support of Professor Salaita, and attempt to get College division of AFT and Historian against War and JVP to sign on.

(the siege of Yarmouk)
MECC signed onto the Heller, Chomsky, PEP resolution on Yarmouk camp

1. The Egyptian military seized power in a coup in July 2013, exploiting the dissatisfaction shown in the June 2013 massive demonstrations against elected President Morsi.
2. The Obama Administration never declared the obvious, that there had been a military coup and had to be pressured into taking measures to quietly suspend military aid to Egypt.
3. The military crackdown that followed the coup has resulted in 2,500 deaths and more than 20,000 arrests since July, according to Michele Dunne, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
4. On the Egyptian constitutional referendum voters could only vote "yes".
5. Public protest is virtually outlawed in Egypt.
6. A cult of personality surrounds al-Sisi.
7. The Egyptian regime collaborates with Israel and the United States in enforcing the siege of the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian regime has destroyed most of the tunnels that were a lifeline to Gaza and has frequently closed the border to Gaza. It refused to arrange passage to women who came to Egypt in March on a humanitarian mission to Gaza and its police brutalized peace activist and Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin.
8. To its shame Congress, after consultation with the Obama administration, passed legislation this January (2014) to gradually restore all the aid suspended to the Egyptian regime. This was a terrible mistake.
9. We call for the suspension of all aid to Egypt and for our government to openly and loudly condemn the military regime there.
(on American-Indian mascots)

MECC opposes the use of any professional team using negative racial connotations in their name.

(on the conflict in Syria)

(1). The charges of chemical attack should be fully investigated by impartial bodies and the evidence and findings should be made public.
(2). We categorically oppose U.S. military action against Syria.
(3). We oppose any nation sending weapons to any side in Syria while the internal conflict is going on.
(4). We encourage Syrians to demand a ceasefire, negotiations and the building of a democratic government.